The Teskey Brothers will be headlining the Melbourne International Jazz Festival on October 17.
Nestled amongst the swathes of bushland in country Victoria, Sam Teskey sits in the recording studio he built with his own hands, the early morning sunlight beaming onto the right side of his face.
The sun has been streaming down on the careers of The Teskey Brothers for the last ten years.
The boys from Warrandyte who became an international success have built a legacy of authenticity and grit, topped with the sweet honey of their bluesy, soul sound.
Ten years after the release of the album that catapulted them to the top of the charts, The Teskey Brothers are returning to their roots with a dedication to their first album, Half Mile Harvest, at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival this October.
The Teskey Brothers at Melbourne International Jazz Festival
- 16-25 October
- various venues across Melbourne and Victoria
- Tickets here
Check out our gig guide, our festival guide, our live music venue guide and our nightclub guide. Follow us on Instagram here.
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October 16 will officially open two weeks of music, creativity and a celebration of artists from around the world.
Dee Dee Bridgewater, Mandisi Dyantyis and the sound of New Orleans themselves, Rebirth Brass Band, will be taking the stage over the two weeks of the festival.
Headlining the opening night at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, The Teskey Brothers will be setting the standard for exactly what kind of music Melbourne has to offer.
The stage will be warmed up by Emily Wurramarra and the legendary Fred Wesley & The New JBs. Trombonist Fred Wesley is funk royalty.
From his time in George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic and as James Brown’s musical director, the man behind the defining hours of funk will be showing Melbourne exactly how to have a good time, setting the crowd on fire for The Teskey Brothers.
When Beat asked Sam about treading the same boards as Fred Wesley, he shook his head in disbelief and laughed.
“How unbelievably awesome is that?” Sam said.
“When I was 14 and Josh was about 16, we went into the city and saw Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, James Brown and Wilson Pickett. It was pretty special, a teeth-cutting performance to witness, I think.”
It’s been ten years since The Teskey Brothers released their first album, Half Mile Harvest. It was written, recorded, and mixed by the brothers themselves.
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“I’m right into the sound side of things,” Sam said. “That’s how the original record came about — it was constant obsession with gear.”
“It all seemed to kick off for us when I bought this big old tape machine from Jimmy Barnes. It’s a 24-track Studer A800. It’s a beast of a machine, and we’re still figuring out how to wield it,” Sam laughed.
The 24-track Studer A800 set-up was also used to record on tape by legends like Stevie Wonder, Tom Petty and Jeff Buckley.
“We had no foresight for it to go this far. It’s crazy. We were just trying out this new machine and all the bits of gear I had been collecting, and thought, ‘Ah, well, we’d better put an album together,’ thinking we’d just sell a minimum amount of CDs or something.
“We did it all to tape, all analogue. That made us realise we should do due diligence on the analogue recording and put it onto vinyl. We got the minimum pressing, as we thought it would just be for us.
“Recording to tape has an aesthetic and a sound, but the thing I love about it — it may be how my brain works — is the decision elimination. It’s so in the moment, you know? When you have the band in the room, you can capture or commit to the sounds there and then in the room.”
They released Pain and Misery, the third track on the album, as a single. Before they knew it, the local record store had been cleaned out, and the duo were restocking the shelves with Half Mile Harvest.
Half Mile Harvest and its consequent albums have connected with audiences across the world. The authenticity of the music, captured on tape, and the rich rawness speak to something deep within us all.
“We’re all human. We all struggle. With the music, we’re always looking at how we have a connection to pain in our own way, and expressing that through our music. It doesn’t matter where you’ve been or what you’ve gone through. We are all human.”
“There’s so much of the world to play and explore, and we always seem to put Australia at the end of the tour, as we’ve had time to refine and get the show into a great spot.
“This one in particular feels like we’re giving the Aussies something that we haven’t done in so many years, and this time we’re putting them first, which doesn’t happen often. It’s going to be uniquely Australian, reliving this album.”
Preparing for their performance for MIJF, the band has been digging back into all the old tunes.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” Sam said. “It’s been a bit of a progression for us over the last ten years. It doesn’t feel like we’ve really stopped, but we’re still chugging along.”
The band has been finding time to return to their roots in preparation for the festival’s opening, between recording their new record, set to hit your ears next year.
“When we did Half Mile Harvest, we had all the time in the world at that point. Getting back into making a record, we’re giving it the time it actually needs,” Sam said.
Their creativity couldn’t be more primed for opening the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, fuelled by ten years of artistry, authenticity and passion.
Catch The Teskey Brothers, alongside Emily Wurramarra and the legendary Fred Wesley & The New JBs, on home soil on October 17. Tickets on sale now.
